Many military leaders of many nations have warned that all nations would be more secure in a world free of nuclear weapons. Immediate and practical steps toward this objective have been arrayed in a host of compelling studies, most notably in the Report of the Canberra Commission on the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.

We, military professionals, who have devoted our lives to the national security of our countries and our peoples, are convinced that the continuing existence of nuclear weapons in the armories of nuclear powers, and the ever present threat of acquisition of these weapons by others, constitute a peril to global peace and security and to the safety and survival of the people we are dedicated to protect.

Through our variety of responsibilities and experiences with weapons and wars in the armed forces of many nations, we have acquired an intimate and perhaps unique knowledge of the present security and insecurity of our countries and peoples.

60 GENERALS PLAN FOR NUCLEAR ABOLITION

Statement on Nuclear Weapons by International Generals and Admirals (Signed by 60 retired generals and admirals from 17 countries) December 5, 1996

It is our deep conviction that the following is urgently needed and must be undertaken now:

First, present and planned stockpiles of nuclear weapons are exceedingly large and should now be greatly cut back;

Second, remaining nuclear weapons should be gradually and transparently taken off alert, and their readiness substantially reduced both in nuclear weapons states and in de facto nuclear weapons states;

Third, long-term international nuclear policy must be based on the declared principle of continuous, complete and irrevocable elimination of nuclear weapons.

IF CURRENT NUCLEAR WEAPONS STATES RENOUNCED NUCLEAR WEAPONS IT WOULD CALM NUCLEAR TENSIONS IN SOUTH ASIA

MOVEMENT IN INDIA FOR NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, 2001, Biologists in India for Nuclear Disarmament

In addition to the geographical realities of South Asia, the heightened tensions, confrontational attitudes and worsened neighborly relationships enhance these risks, negating any claims of enhanced national security. In fact, South Asia now has all the ingredients for a regional nuclear arms race that would exponentially increase these risks and prove socio-economically ruinous. It is essential to condemn the hypocrisy of the nuclear weapons states [NWS] in maintaining huge nuclear arsenals while making pious pronouncements and imposing sanctions under a discriminatory and unethical global nuclear regime. This can only be done by returning to ethical and consistent positions on global nuclear disarmament through renouncing nuclear weapons manufacture and deployment, not by joining the NWS in their insanity.